Diversity and evolution of the Sulawesi ricefish radiation

 Evolutionary drivers of a unique island radiation

Ricefishes (Teleostei: Adrianichthyidae) are a family of small freshwater fishes, of which the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes group), a popular model organism and ornamental fish, is perhaps best-known. While widely distributed throughout South, East and South-East Asia, more than half of the family’s known species are endemic to the geologically isolated island Sulawesi, located at the eastern limit of the family’s range, within the well-known transitional zoogeographic zone of Wallacea. This project investigates evolutionary drivers of this unique island radiation as a whole, as well as in an in-depth study on the specific case of Lake Poso with its particularly diverse ricefish fauna. Focusing on ecological opportunity and introgressive hybridization as likely important influences, morphological, genomic, taxonomic and ecological studies are combined in an integrative approach to quantify and reconstruct the evolutionary diversification of Sulawesi ricefishes.